


In the Still and the Dark

by Devilc



Category: DCU, Outsiders
Genre: Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-06
Updated: 2010-02-06
Packaged: 2017-10-07 01:42:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/60046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Devilc/pseuds/Devilc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nightwing, Owen, and the events of Checkmate #15.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Still and the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> Written on Wednesday when Checkmate #15 came out, before Outsiders #49 came along and more or less completely Jossed this — because Dick was incredibly OOC in that story and Boomer should have given him a good swift kick in the ass for letting him and Sasha be tortured. (And Batman was somewhat OOC in it, too, because as he's been written these past 10 years, he'd absolutely be on the moral high-horse where Owen's concerned.)

Dick's been fighting it about a year now.

It doesn't help that Captain Boom- Owen looks like Roy, has something of the same daredevil attitude, has a checkered ... no, murder's a bit beyond checkered. Owen's past is a hell of a lot darker than Roy's, there's no equivocating over that.

And Dick's fought it, being harsh and biting and at best _downright stern_ with Owen. Never failing to remind him _what_ he used to be, _who_ he used to be, and that he was here in the Outsiders on sufferance. That he was a member of the team only because they couldn't send him back to Iron Heights and because they didn't want turn him over to the tender mercies of Amanda Waller -- for now.

And Owen's sucked it up without complaint ... well, without much complaint. Made friends with Rex. Even got Grace to like him a bit. Roomed with Supergirl, and apparently got on quite well with her until she more or less tossed him aside. He hid it well, but every now and again, Dick got a glimpse of the _hurt _ behind those hazel-green eyes, until Owen flashed a smile and cracked a flat joke. (And Dick forced himself to remember that Owen was a meta, had murdered in cold blood, that he had run with the Rogues, stopped himself from reaching out to Owen the way he wanted to ... the way he should have.)

In the past year, Owen's shouldered a load that would have cracked most men. Actually, his rather crappy year with the Outsiders has probably been the best of the last three, and that's saying something.

Sitting now in the near dark, with Owen in his arms, Dick can't see most of what they've done to him, but he can _smell _ the blood and hear Owen's shallow, too-fast breathing, feel his rapid, thready pulse. Dick can't see most of what they've done to him, but he _knows _ it was bad.

And Owen still hasn't complained, hasn't cried though he's in obvious pain, even made a bit of a joke when the guards unceremoniously pitched him in. And Dick went with it, calling him Boomer, acting as calmly and casually about it as he could, as if things like this happened to him and his team members every day.

(As if it didn't hurt.)

Owen's been so unbelievably fucking brave about everything, that Dick can't fight it any more. Because that would just be rote duty to some abstract set of ideals that never took into account the kind of loss and betrayal after betrayal after betrayal that Owen's faced in the past few years, and still emerged with the better part of his humanity intact.

And all Dick can do right now is lean up against the wall, Owen cradled in his arms, because all Dick has to give him at the moment is some body heat and the comfort of a human touch, and he prays these are enough to sustain Owen until rescue arrives.

He idly brushes his hand across Owen's hair and Owen shifts and gives a kind of hitching sigh and settles _deeper_ into him.

Dick rocks him softly and strokes his hair.

There's a little part of his heart named "Owen Mercer" now, and Dick's not going to fight it any longer.

Anything else would be betrayal.

And Dick doesn't do that.


End file.
